Corruption in the timber trade is a serious threat, economically and environmentally. Forest-rich countries in Latin America are particularly exposed.

Those include Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, where our Green Corruption programme has been working with forestry authorities and environmental agencies to help them assess and mitigate corruption risks.

Professionals in anti-corruption, asset recovery, business integrity, governance and related topics need a range of advanced competencies – to master the intricacies of financial investigations, for example, or hone analytical and research capabilities.

At the Basel Institute, we know that much valuable expertise is gained “on the job” through training, mentoring and hands-on experience. Our existing learning opportunities meet these needs and empower communities of international professionals.

The Basel Institute’s International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) has marked the beginning of a new “train-the-trainer” programme in Zambia with a successful course on financial investigations and asset recovery.

The train-the-trainer programme aims to increase local training capacity by equipping five local anti-corruption professionals with the skills to become qualified ICAR trainers over the course of five workshops, while simultaneously training up to 125 other participants.

The Basel Institute's technical assistance to the Prosecutor General’s Office in Mozambique will now continue through 2027, thanks to a second-phase agreement with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Mozambique office.

Since 2018, our locally based team has been helping to build the capacity of the Prosecutor General's Office to investigate and prosecute corruption and related financial crimes, as well as to recover stolen assets. Training support was extended to the country’s Criminal Police in 2022. 

Better management of public infrastructure projects could save significant amounts of taxpayers’ money and result in better buildings, roads and bridges. But the public officials managing the projects are often unaware of academic frameworks and tools that could help them to manage the investments more efficiently and transparently.

A new academic course developed by our Subnational Public Finance Management Strengthening Programme (Programa GFP) and the University of Piura seeks to address that issue for public officials in Peru.